A Beautiful Adventure

Hello all!  It's my turn to host our challenge at A Vintage Journey, and I'm setting out to go Art Journalling with Tim.  As you'll know, Tim doesn't really do art journalling (or if he does, he keeps it to himself), so what we're really looking for is to see how you use Tim's techniques, products or vintage/grunge style in your own art journalling.

Do check out what my amazing team-mates have come up with to inspire you - what a joy to be on this journey with them - and here's my offering for you.

If you saw my first Wilted Violet playtime tags, you'll recognise the genesis of this journalling page.  And if you saw yesterday's Time to Fly tag for Country View Challenges, you'll know I'm in slightly melancholy autumnal mode.

But there's also tremendous beauty to this season, as well as the promise of journeying with all those migrating birds.  All this has come together, I think, in today's pages.

I started by putting some tissue tape on to create some textured earth.  Then I started smearing layers of colour onto my craft mat, direct from the ink pad.

From the top down it's Chipped Sapphire, Wilted Violet, Ground Espresso and Rusty Hinge.  I spritzed on plenty of water and then pressed my journal down onto the ink.

It's a medium sized book (this spread is 13 inches wide and 9 tall), and the pages seem to be slightly coated - they're certainly very smooth.  (I've no idea where it came from - I think it bobbed up in the house move a couple of years ago!)

This was the first "print", and you can see that the ink is pooling and spotting in really interesting ways.

I pressed down on to the ink a few more times, drying in between - basically it's wrinkle-free distressing on a large scale - and I love the end result.

I stamped the large Tim Holtz bare tree branches repeatedly in either Potting Soil or Jet Black, and sometimes in both, to create a canopy of trees at either side of the pages.











To give the "earth" some texture I blended on Ground Espresso and then stamped Tim's scratchy grunge stamp in Potting Soil (of course!) along under the tissue tape.







And from the soil, there are grasses and wildflowers growing, all Tim Holtz stamps, stamped mainly in Coffee and Sepia.

Well, it's me... of course there are grasses and wildflowers!  What did you expect?  (Click on the photos for a larger version.)

The birds, "at break of day arising from sullen earth", are setting off on their long journey southward.












The large Scratched Raven has been startled by the sudden flurry of sound and movement, but he's not going with them - just shaking his wings and settling down again to pass the long cold winter right where he is.

The words are cut out of cream card, and then I embossed them with Vanilla White.














This gives them more dimension, but also meant that they wouldn't soak up the ink as I shaded around them to bed them in to the page.














I've used the same colour shades, dipping a water brush into Distress Stains to add the shadows.

I toyed with adding other elements, trying out various bits of ephemera and embellishments, but in the end I just went with some subtle script stamping for a touch of extra detail.













I used my all-time favourite script from the Apothecary stamp set, and I stamped it in Rusty Hinge, Wilted Violet or Chipped Sapphire, according to where it was in the sky.

I'm really pleased with the tissue tape, given that I only really put it there initially to balance the necessary taping of the central spine to strengthen the pages. 

Whether travelling far to new horizons, or staying at home amongst friends and family...

... either way you can enjoy life's beautiful adventure.








I hope you like my journalling pages.  As you can see I've used Tim Holtz techniques and products, but I've also been inspired by the things I fell in love with when I first encountered Tim and his work - stamping and the Distress Inks - so I kept it fairly simple to let those elements shine.  And although I've been Art Journalling with Tim, I think I've also made it in my style.

I really hope you'll be inspired to come Art Journalling with Tim this month at A Vintage Journey.  Do remember to check out the journal pages from the rest of the team too.  As always, there's a prize voucher (drawn randomly) sponsored by Country View Crafts, and we'll be selecting our three Pinworthies to be displayed on our Vintage Journey Pinterest board.

I'm working away from home quite a lot over the next couple of weeks so it's likely to be quieter round here again, but I'll see you somewhere along the road!

The violets were past their prime,
Yet their departing breath
Was sweeter, in the blast of death,
Than all the lavish fragrance of the time.
From The Adventure of a Star by James Montgomery

I'd like to join in with the Ombre theme at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  I'm not completely sure whether Ombre has to be tones of one colour or whether you can move from colour to colour - I'm hoping it's the latter!
I'd like to offer up my migrating birds and autumnal colours in the Autumn challenge at Try It On Tuesday
And I'd like to share these pages with the Love to Create challenge in their regular Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes theme
And I'd like to join in yet again at Anything Goes with Autumn Colours at Mixed Media World - can you tell I've got my Autumn Hat on?!

Just a quick reminder... we are seeking two new Creative Guides.
If you would like more information and details please email Brenda at
brenda_brown25@hotmail.com by Monday 5th October.